'The power of Mother Nature:' Neighbors clean up after tornado hits Milton

 

MILTON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Parker Loofboro was in his bedroom, talking to his girlfriend on Sunday afternoon, when he heard what he describes as “a big, loud noise.”

“It started hailing like 30 minutes before and then the wind really picked up,” the Milton native told CBS 58’s Ellie Nakamoto-White. “It felt like 20, 30 seconds at most and just did all this damage and then five seconds after, it was sunny again. It was crazy.”

That “noise” was actually a confirmed tornado that had hit the area just before 5:30 p.m. on May 26.

“I’d never experienced it, I didn’t expect to ever experience it and it’s pretty crazy especially when you come up and look at all the damage and everybody’s houses are all messed up and all the trees are uprooted,” Loofboro said. “It’s pretty nuts.”

His family’s home took the most damage, with some of the fencing on the deck ripped away and large branches that landed on their camper.

In front of the house are more piles of nature debris, gathered and collected by several neighbors in the area.

“We were lucky, we had like 30 people come and help us and these other people they’re starting to get cleaned up now too,” Loofboro said, referencing houses across the street who he believes ended up losing power.

One of the people who stopped by to help is Bill Beil, who lives about a half mile up the road from Loofboro.

“This is my first rodeo,” Beil said about the tornado.

While his wife and kids were at home, Beil said he decided to walk over and see if anybody needed help.

“I don’t have a chainsaw, but I can grab some branches and move them out of the way,” Beil said. “It just really suggests in a time like this that it’s important to have people come together.”

While residents don’t know when their homes will be repaired, they said they are just glad everyone is safe.

“It’s crazy, the power of Mother Nature,” Loofboro said.